Nut butters are typically prepared by roasting and blanching raw nuts and then grinding them. The resulting product is a pasty material, which is a mixture of nut particles and oil that is released from the cellular structure of the nuts during the grinding operation. If this product is allowed to stand for a period of time, then the oil tends to separate from the product and form separate layer on the top leaving a solid mass of ground nut particles underneath.
In order to prevent this oil separation, stabilizers or stabilizing agents such as mono- and diglycerides, often consisting of high melting point fats and oils such as partially or completely hydrogenated fats or oils, can be included in the nut butter preparations. Examples of oils from which such stabilizers are made include rapeseed, cottonseed, and soybean oils. It is known that certain stabilizers form a crystalline structure when cooled, and that such crystalline structures assist in preventing the oil from separating from the ground nut particles.
Customers are increasingly paying closer attention to their health and to the particulars regarding their food sources. As such, consumers are questioning their consumption of products which contain partially or completely hydrogenated fats or oils because it is known that these partially or completely hydrogenated fats or oils contain high amounts of trans-fat (also known as a trans-fatty acid) and many doctors consider trans-fat to be the worst type of fat that can be consumed. Unlike other dietary fats, trans-fat raises both the low density lipoprotein (LDL), also known as “bad” cholesterol, and lowers the high density lipoprotein (HDL) also known as “good” cholesterol. Furthermore, studies have shown that the combination of high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease in both men and women.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a stabilized butter composition that has improved or longer-term storage stability including reduced oil separation.
In general, one aspect of the invention is to provide a butter composition. The butter composition comprises at least one type of a roasted and ground nut, seed or legume, and a stabilizer, wherein the stabilizer is a plant-derived wax.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a method of preparing a stabilized butter composition is provided. The method comprises the steps of roasting at least one variety of a nut, seed or legume, grinding the at least one variety of nut, seed or legume to form a nut paste, seed paste or legume paste, heating a plant-derived wax stabilizer above its melting point to form a pourable stabilizer, mixing the pourable stabilizer with the nut paste, seed paste or legume paste to form a mixture, and cooling the mixture to form the stabilized butter composition.
In still yet another aspect of the invention, a butter stabilizer composition is provided. The nut stabilizer composition comprises a plant-derived wax baying an ester content in the range from about 78%-100% and a melting point in the range from about 74° C.-82° C.
The present invention will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, however, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention to the embodiment described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.